1st November 2005 Archive

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose? Wireless has increasingly been the subject of Californian utopians' fantasies for several years now. The propellerheads were coming, we were told, and armed with technology such as smart radios, the evil incumbent telcos would be overthrown, along with hated authority figures regulators such as the FCC would melt away.

One of the major issues with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is that technology companies are the primary drivers of its development, yet its implementation has little to do with technology. This does create a situation where having an `SOA’ offering becomes an important tick-box for the technology vendors, with each offering geared strongly towards each vendor’s preferred technology solution. But in practice, the implementation of a service infrastructure is really a function of management, and the implementers are now most likely to be an evolution of the applications developer.

Opera is to supply its browser for the TopSeries in-flight entertainment system Thales sells to operators of the larger Boeing and Airbus planes. So next time you are browsing the web at 30,000 feet, you know who to thank.

Sysinternals' Mark Russinovich has performed an analysis of the copy restriction measures deployed by Sony Music on its latest CDs: which he bluntly calls a 'root kit'. Using conventional tools to remove Sony's digital media malware will leave ordinary users with Windows systems unable to play CDs.

Oracle is offering a free, beta version of its XE database product. The "Express Edition" is available as a free download for developers and students to play around with. But software vendors can also distribute it.

Morse said sales were poor in the first half of the year but it expects things to pick up during the second half. It expects a greater proportion than before to be earned in the second half of the year, due to its shift away from pure reselling.

The website of the World Stem Cell Hub in Seoul was reduced to a crawl for several hours earlier today after it bgean accepting applications for patients with spinal injuries or Parkinson's disease willing to take part in stem cell research, AP reports.

October saw the biggest increase in virus numbers since anti-virus firm Sophos began tracking outbreaks in 1988. The security vendor now identifies and protects against a total of 112,142 viruses, an increase of 1,685 on September.

Sony has launched the PlayStation Portable's answer to Apple's iTunes jukebox software: a PC-based application designed to keep the mobile device stocked with music, video, photography and other content.

We might not like the idea, but manufacturers around the world are intent on telling us that we must and will watch movies on the go. One of the first companies to try and get you to swallow this mantra was Creative, and its latest attempt is its update to the Portable Media Center, the Zen Vision, writes Stuart Miles.

The AA was caught out this week in a most unfortunate piece of worker-wrangling. Call centre staff, it seems, are watched very closely to make sure they are not spending valuable company time on the lav.

Sri Lanka is to block direct dialling to 13 countries, mostly in the South Pacific, in a move designed to combat the growing menace of rogue autodiallers. The ban comes into force on Tuesday (1 November), AFP reports.

Intel has again pushed ahead with being behind on the dual-core server processor front. The chipmaker today said its dual-core Xeon intended for servers with four or more processors has started shipping today, instead of in early 2006 as originally planned. This puts Intel just about seven months behind AMD, which shipped its dual-core, four-way+ Opteron in April.

Just to prepare you all for the joy that lies ahead later this week when we publish the complete Stern Response mailbag, I've decided to issue this flame in its full, unedited glory. Now you know what I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Microsoft patted itself on the back for completing .NET, while announcing 'live' Windows and Office offerings today. With these offerings, Microsoft hopes it can counter Google and tap into the trend for "software as a service."

Google Print is revving up its scanners once again, vowing to churn through more books from the Stanford University and University of Michigan collections. Google imposed a moratorium on the scanning project in August, but threatened to resume scanning by the start of November, which is today.